1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the design of intelligent data processing. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and system for detecting undesirable inferences that can be drawn from a set of documents.
2. Related Art
The relentless growth of the Internet has made the World Wide Web (the Web) one of the largest and most accessible pool of information today. In response, powerful search engines have emerged to help users locate and retrieve a document of interest on the Web. These search engines are becoming progressively faster, more thorough, and more accurate. It has never been easier to look up facts, keep up with events, and catch up with people with Web-based resources, such as Webpages, blogs, online data repositories, online newspapers, and online public records.
However, these online resources also make protecting information privacy much more difficult. With the help of a search engine or a Web information integration tool, one can easily infer facts, reconstruct events, and piece together identities from fragments of information collected from disparate sources. Therefore, protecting information requires concealing not only the information itself, but also a myriad of clues that might indirectly lead to it. Doing so is notoriously difficult, because seemingly innocuous information may give away one's secret.
Hence, there is a need for a method and a system for detecting undesired inferences to facilitate more effective protection of information privacy.